{"slug": "thunderbird", "name": "Thunderbird", "category": "communication", "category_name": "Email and chat", "description": "Free, open-source desktop email, calendar, contacts, chat and RSS client from Mozilla.", "recommenders": 26, "commenters": 55, "warners": 10, "score": 19.062, "rising": 2.11, "first": "2025-11-19", "latest": "2026-10-18", "why": "Liked as a desktop client for juggling multiple email accounts, especially on Linux, and for archiving or migrating years of mail locally; some also use its built-in RSS, Matrix and IRC support.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 26, "neutral": 19, "compare": 0, "warn": 10}, "spark": [3, 1, 2, 0, 3, 4, 0, 2, 3, 2, 4, 2], "listed": true, "loved": ["Mail archiving", "Multiple accounts"], "caveat": "Declining quality", "short_quote": "I use Thunderbird on both Linux/Android as my sole client for personal email. I'm mostly pretty happy with it", "icon": true, "domain": "thunderbird.net", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.thunderbird.net/", "pricing": "open source", "aliases": ["Thunderbird"], "verdict": [{"text": "Liked as a desktop client for juggling multiple email accounts, especially on Linux,", "cites": [{"id": 801225232, "item_id": 50076577, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50076577", "by": "ptnpzwqd", "date": "2026-10-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Juggling multiple e-mail accounts in a single client, and I haven't found anything better", "excerpt": "Juggling multiple e-mail accounts in a single client, and I haven't found anything better - also haven't really had any major complaints, the desktoo app works perfectly for what I use it for. What alternative do you suggest?", "context": "", "use_case": "multiple email accounts", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird for iOS"}, {"id": 801250241, "item_id": 50078140, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50078140", "by": "drnick1", "date": "2026-10-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "On Linux desktop, Thunderbird is still the best all around email/CardDAV/CalDAV client it seems", "excerpt": "I have been using K9 for a long time on Android. No complaints. I guess most Apple users will simply use the default email client, which works well and is probably better integrated and has a better UI than Thunderbird. On Linux desktop, Thunderbird is still the best all around email/CardDAV/CalDAV client it seems, despite being unreasonably heavy.", "context": "Linux desktop user", "use_case": "Linux desktop email/calendar/contacts", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird for iOS"}, {"id": 747974786, "item_id": 46748424, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46748424", "by": "NoboruWataya", "date": "2026-01-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Thunderbird on desktop and FairEmail on Android", "excerpt": "My tips from moving away from Gmail: - Mailbox.org is what I use and it's pretty good. I often see Fastmail recommended too. - Use a standalone email client that allows you to connect to multiple email servers. This makes it easy to continue to monitor your old email account while you use the new one. I use Thunderbird on desktop and FairEmail on Android (though Thunderbird also has an app for Android). - Transfer al", "context": "", "use_case": "multi-account email client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Bye Bye Gmail"}, {"id": 763229856, "item_id": 47701866, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47701866", "by": "rambambram", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Just donated. Have been using Thunderbird for years.", "excerpt": "Just donated. Have been using Thunderbird for years. I once donated to Wikipedia - and they have billions I heard - so might as well donate to another important piece of software for my digital life. Now that I read the comments I find out Mozilla might have enough money and a CEO taking in millions. Any recommendations for a good email client on Linux? Just as a backup for now...", "context": "Linux user", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Help Keep Thunderbird Alive"}]}, {"text": " and for archiving or migrating years of mail locally;", "cites": [{"id": 793598432, "item_id": 49599902, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49599902", "by": "juswilvel", "date": "2026-09-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I used Thunderbird local folders for the archive", "excerpt": "I literally just finished doing this with multiple years of Gmail. I used Thunderbird local folders for the archive, then Google Takeout to verify the message set before deleting anything. I also hashed the final MBOX copies before removing the originals. A little tedious, but it worked really well.", "context": "", "use_case": "email archive", "switched_from": "Gmail", "story": "Ask HN: Best way to archive 25 years of emails"}, {"id": 792012064, "item_id": 49500754, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49500754", "by": "leros", "date": "2026-08-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've synced 20 years of Gmail to a local Thunderbird via imap.", "excerpt": "I've synced 20 years of Gmail to a local Thunderbird via imap. The initial sync took a few days but it was pretty simple to set up.", "context": "", "use_case": "archiving emails locally", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Best way to archive 25 years of emails"}, {"id": 782378736, "item_id": 48898671, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48898671", "by": "Markoff", "date": "2026-07-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Thunderbird was the tool I used to create backup", "excerpt": "related - recently I learned Microsoft doesn't provide any way to download all your emails from outlook.com in one way to back them up, so Thunderbird was the tool I used to create backup still can't comprehend how is this legal in EU, Google at least provide takeout", "context": "", "use_case": "backing up Outlook emails", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird Desktop settings research: what we learned from your feedback"}, {"id": 793061713, "item_id": 49566357, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49566357", "by": "goobatrooba", "date": "2026-09-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "put both accounts in thunderbird and then move everything over, thunderbird does the work", "excerpt": "I switched to migadu which was not too painful for a single account (basically the advice was to put both accounts in thunderbird and then move everything over, thunderbird does the work). For email very happy with the provider, notably also as it allows infinite domains. But I miss a proper calendar which migadu is strangely mostly lacking (basic caldav only). Is fastmail better in this respect? And can you do wildc", "context": "", "use_case": "migrating mailboxes", "switched_from": "", "story": "Gmail to end support for \"Send as\" for third-party addresses, such as @yahoo.com"}]}, {"text": " some also use its built-in RSS, Matrix and IRC support.", "cites": [{"id": 757912000, "item_id": 47369500, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47369500", "by": "cristoperb", "date": "2026-03-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Thunderbird only for a small number of feeds I want to read every post from.", "excerpt": "> Thunderbird delivers RSS feed items the same way as email, so you can apply filters to mark them as \"read\" This is a good idea. I use Thunderbird only for a small number of feeds I want to read every post from. I used to also use a separate feed reader for my \"river of news\", but eventually I stopped looking at that and just loadded hackernews or reddit when I wanted a distraction. But I might try Thunderbird for m", "context": "", "use_case": "RSS feed reader", "switched_from": "", "story": "Using Thunderbird for RSS"}, {"id": 757961504, "item_id": 47372594, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47372594", "by": "ece", "date": "2026-03-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The built-in matrix and irc client is pretty great too", "excerpt": "The built-in matrix and irc client is pretty great too, hope they can keep building out these features. I donate every year to projects I use, and TB was among them this year.", "context": "donates yearly to projects used", "use_case": "email, chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Using Thunderbird for RSS"}, {"id": 735825648, "item_id": 45989103, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45989103", "by": "pfych", "date": "2025-11-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Thunderbird as my main Matrix client since it's already always open on my PC and is Lightweight.", "excerpt": "I use Thunderbird as my main Matrix client since it's already always open on my PC and is Lightweight. Whenever I open Element or any other client (Nheko, etc.) they all complain about each-other being unverified. Clicking verify in any client does nothing. No popups in any other clients - doesn't ever seem to do anything. Sometimes Element will pop up a QR reader but there's no QR presented in the other clients. The", "context": "", "use_case": "Matrix client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Verifying your Matrix devices is becoming mandatory"}]}, {"text": " The most common complaint is that it feels clunky and has gotten worse over the years,", "cites": [{"id": 763239120, "item_id": 47702445, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47702445", "by": "antisol", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Literally every change that's been made to thunderbird in the last 10+ years has made it worse.", "excerpt": "DO NOT donate to Thunderbird. Let it \"die\". As with all of Mozilla's software, that would be the best outcome - if it does, someone who isn't totally incompetent might fork it and actually improve it. Literally every change that's been made to thunderbird in the last 10+ years has made it worse. Mozilla are doggedly using the same philosophy as they are with firefox: \"in what new and exciting ways can we make it more", "context": "20-year user", "use_case": "email and calendar", "switched_from": "", "story": "Help Keep Thunderbird Alive"}, {"id": 801184720, "item_id": 50074045, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50074045", "by": "pizza234", "date": "2026-10-13", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it's a turd of a program", "excerpt": "I use it as well, and it's a turd of a program. However, the flipside is that nowadays, with AI, one can build addons very easily, to fill missing functionality.", "context": "", "use_case": "email client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird for iOS"}, {"id": 799892464, "item_id": 49993279, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49993279", "by": "cosmic_cheese", "date": "2026-10-07", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Thunderbird on the other hand feels wrong somehow, and the recent UI \u201cmodernization\u201d didn\u2019t do much to change that.", "excerpt": "It\u2019s a gut feel sort of thing that\u2019s usually grounded in some set of UI design principles that haven\u2019t been adhered to. Defining it just pins down what the issues are rather than making the feeling go away. Glancing at screenshots of TheBat! and Pegasus Mail, i don\u2019t find them objectionable in the way I do Thunderbird. They\u2019re just old school desktop clients like I used in the late 90s/early 2000s, which I generally ", "context": "", "use_case": "email client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Penguin Mail \u2013 open-source Rust email client for Linux with AI"}, {"id": 763223409, "item_id": 47701463, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47701463", "by": "Loic", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used Thunderbird for years, it was really the best client for some times on Linux.", "excerpt": "Interestingly, I used Thunderbird for years, it was really the best client for some times on Linux. But as the development stalled, I moved to Gnome Evolution, the nice integration with the general Gnome desktop made the switch less painful (at the start, it was hard, Evolution was not that good). But Evolution improved nicely, less bugs, faster, still well integrated into the desktop and I see no reasons to switch b", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Help Keep Thunderbird Alive"}]}, {"text": " with weak search and heavy resource use also mentioned.", "cites": [{"id": 801198864, "item_id": 50074929, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50074929", "by": "janci", "date": "2026-10-13", "stance": "warn", "quote": "the search in Thunderbird never worked for me, so I use the quick filter", "excerpt": "Yeah, the search in Thunderbird never worked for me, so I use the quick filter. Apparently it does not use the index (and is slower), but it works.", "context": "", "use_case": "email search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird for iOS"}, {"id": 763229728, "item_id": 47701858, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47701858", "by": "nisegami", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Thunderbird on both Linux/Android as my sole client for personal email. I'm mostly pretty happy with it", "excerpt": "I use Thunderbird on both Linux/Android as my sole client for personal email. I'm mostly pretty happy with it, aside from search. My use case is mostly receiving email rather than sending email however. I would be much more amenable to donating if I knew that my donation would be going to support Thunderbird specifically and not rolled up into the parent MZLA Technologies Corporation, but I understand that's usually ", "context": "", "use_case": "personal email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Help Keep Thunderbird Alive"}, {"id": 801250241, "item_id": 50078140, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50078140", "by": "drnick1", "date": "2026-10-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "On Linux desktop, Thunderbird is still the best all around email/CardDAV/CalDAV client it seems", "excerpt": "I have been using K9 for a long time on Android. No complaints. I guess most Apple users will simply use the default email client, which works well and is probably better integrated and has a better UI than Thunderbird. On Linux desktop, Thunderbird is still the best all around email/CardDAV/CalDAV client it seems, despite being unreasonably heavy.", "context": "Linux desktop user", "use_case": "Linux desktop email/calendar/contacts", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird for iOS"}, {"id": 802201650, "item_id": 50137603, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50137603", "by": "soulofmischief", "date": "2026-10-18", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Thunderbird alone makes the computer too warm to comfortably use.", "excerpt": "We will see, Ternus was previously senior VP of hardware engineering so my money has been on it getting worse. I'm excited for Gravity Linux though. I appreciate your suggestion. I'm curious if the machines you repaired then had aluminum unibodies? My understanding is that if my chassis heats up quickly, then the thermal coupling is good, since the unibodies act as a heat sink. Certainly, blasting the fans at 100% ty", "context": "M2 and M5 Mac owner with thermal issues on macOS 26", "use_case": "email client under Rosetta", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple ML Research: Muse Spark Open with MLX on Mac Studio"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Mail archiving", "summary": "Commenters use it to back up, archive or migrate large mailboxes from Gmail and Outlook.com.", "quotes": [{"id": 793598432, "item_id": 49599902, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49599902", "by": "juswilvel", "date": "2026-09-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I used Thunderbird local folders for the archive", "excerpt": "I literally just finished doing this with multiple years of Gmail. I used Thunderbird local folders for the archive, then Google Takeout to verify the message set before deleting anything. I also hashed the final MBOX copies before removing the originals. A little tedious, but it worked really well.", "context": "", "use_case": "email archive", "switched_from": "Gmail", "story": "Ask HN: Best way to archive 25 years of emails"}, {"id": 792012064, "item_id": 49500754, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49500754", "by": "leros", "date": "2026-08-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've synced 20 years of Gmail to a local Thunderbird via imap.", "excerpt": "I've synced 20 years of Gmail to a local Thunderbird via imap. The initial sync took a few days but it was pretty simple to set up.", "context": "", "use_case": "archiving emails locally", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Best way to archive 25 years of emails"}, {"id": 782378736, "item_id": 48898671, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48898671", "by": "Markoff", "date": "2026-07-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Thunderbird was the tool I used to create backup", "excerpt": "related - recently I learned Microsoft doesn't provide any way to download all your emails from outlook.com in one way to back them up, so Thunderbird was the tool I used to create backup still can't comprehend how is this legal in EU, Google at least provide takeout", "context": "", "use_case": "backing up Outlook emails", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird Desktop settings research: what we learned from your feedback"}]}, {"label": "Multiple accounts", "summary": "Handles many email accounts in one client, including CardDAV and CalDAV.", "quotes": [{"id": 801225232, "item_id": 50076577, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50076577", "by": "ptnpzwqd", "date": "2026-10-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Juggling multiple e-mail accounts in a single client, and I haven't found anything better", "excerpt": "Juggling multiple e-mail accounts in a single client, and I haven't found anything better - also haven't really had any major complaints, the desktoo app works perfectly for what I use it for. What alternative do you suggest?", "context": "", "use_case": "multiple email accounts", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird for iOS"}, {"id": 801250241, "item_id": 50078140, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50078140", "by": "drnick1", "date": "2026-10-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "On Linux desktop, Thunderbird is still the best all around email/CardDAV/CalDAV client it seems", "excerpt": "I have been using K9 for a long time on Android. No complaints. I guess most Apple users will simply use the default email client, which works well and is probably better integrated and has a better UI than Thunderbird. On Linux desktop, Thunderbird is still the best all around email/CardDAV/CalDAV client it seems, despite being unreasonably heavy.", "context": "Linux desktop user", "use_case": "Linux desktop email/calendar/contacts", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird for iOS"}, {"id": 747974786, "item_id": 46748424, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46748424", "by": "NoboruWataya", "date": "2026-01-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Thunderbird on desktop and FairEmail on Android", "excerpt": "My tips from moving away from Gmail: - Mailbox.org is what I use and it's pretty good. I often see Fastmail recommended too. - Use a standalone email client that allows you to connect to multiple email servers. This makes it easy to continue to monitor your old email account while you use the new one. I use Thunderbird on desktop and FairEmail on Android (though Thunderbird also has an app for Android). - Transfer al", "context": "", "use_case": "multi-account email client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Bye Bye Gmail"}]}, {"label": "Long-term daily use", "summary": "Many commenters say they have used it every day for years and are happy with it.", "quotes": [{"id": 763260688, "item_id": 47703793, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47703793", "by": "sherr", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Thunderbird every day and have used it for years now.", "excerpt": "I've just donated. I use Thunderbird every day and have used it for years now. Mozilla, Firefox and Thunderbird are very important to me and my internet usage. For all the complaints (many just unwarranted in my opinion) I'm a happy user.", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Help Keep Thunderbird Alive"}, {"id": 763229856, "item_id": 47701866, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47701866", "by": "rambambram", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Just donated. Have been using Thunderbird for years.", "excerpt": "Just donated. Have been using Thunderbird for years. I once donated to Wikipedia - and they have billions I heard - so might as well donate to another important piece of software for my digital life. Now that I read the comments I find out Mozilla might have enough money and a CEO taking in millions. Any recommendations for a good email client on Linux? Just as a backup for now...", "context": "Linux user", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Help Keep Thunderbird Alive"}, {"id": 775307104, "item_id": 48456694, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48456694", "by": "Walf", "date": "2026-06-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Still my preferred client.", "excerpt": "Ctrl + Shift + O opens a threaded conversation in a new tab. Settings > Composition > Use paragraph format\u2026 set to unchecked Search has always worked pretty well for me, with the exception of not searching message bodies in a folder that's set to only download messages on demand. If the folder is set for offline use, the bodies are there and searchable. I use the Quick Filter bar 99% of the time, anyway, it's great. ", "context": "", "use_case": "email client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird Littering My Home"}]}, {"label": "Extra protocols", "summary": "Its built-in RSS, Matrix and IRC support gets praise.", "quotes": [{"id": 757961504, "item_id": 47372594, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47372594", "by": "ece", "date": "2026-03-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The built-in matrix and irc client is pretty great too", "excerpt": "The built-in matrix and irc client is pretty great too, hope they can keep building out these features. I donate every year to projects I use, and TB was among them this year.", "context": "donates yearly to projects used", "use_case": "email, chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Using Thunderbird for RSS"}, {"id": 735825648, "item_id": 45989103, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45989103", "by": "pfych", "date": "2025-11-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Thunderbird as my main Matrix client since it's already always open on my PC and is Lightweight.", "excerpt": "I use Thunderbird as my main Matrix client since it's already always open on my PC and is Lightweight. Whenever I open Element or any other client (Nheko, etc.) they all complain about each-other being unverified. Clicking verify in any client does nothing. No popups in any other clients - doesn't ever seem to do anything. Sometimes Element will pop up a QR reader but there's no QR presented in the other clients. The", "context": "", "use_case": "Matrix client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Verifying your Matrix devices is becoming mandatory"}, {"id": 757912000, "item_id": 47369500, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47369500", "by": "cristoperb", "date": "2026-03-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Thunderbird only for a small number of feeds I want to read every post from.", "excerpt": "> Thunderbird delivers RSS feed items the same way as email, so you can apply filters to mark them as \"read\" This is a good idea. I use Thunderbird only for a small number of feeds I want to read every post from. I used to also use a separate feed reader for my \"river of news\", but eventually I stopped looking at that and just loadded hackernews or reddit when I wanted a distraction. But I might try Thunderbird for m", "context": "", "use_case": "RSS feed reader", "switched_from": "", "story": "Using Thunderbird for RSS"}]}, {"label": "Quick filter", "summary": "The quick filter bar makes finding messages fast.", "quotes": [{"id": 794028209, "item_id": 49626763, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49626763", "by": "jhallenworld", "date": "2026-09-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "finding things in Thunderbird was just so much faster because it had a filter feature", "excerpt": "I had to use Notes after our company was acquired by IBM in 2005. As a startup, we used Thunderbird. What I remember was that finding things in Thunderbird was just so much faster because it had a filter feature (you enter a string, then instantly only the messages with that string would be shown). No such feature in Notes- I remember having a hard time finding messages, and that its search feature would miss things ", "context": "worked at a startup acquired by IBM in 2005", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Lotus Notes and the dangers of starting from scratch"}, {"id": 775307104, "item_id": 48456694, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48456694", "by": "Walf", "date": "2026-06-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Still my preferred client.", "excerpt": "Ctrl + Shift + O opens a threaded conversation in a new tab. Settings > Composition > Use paragraph format\u2026 set to unchecked Search has always worked pretty well for me, with the exception of not searching message bodies in a folder that's set to only download messages on demand. If the folder is set for offline use, the bodies are there and searchable. I use the Quick Filter bar 99% of the time, anyway, it's great. ", "context": "", "use_case": "email client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird Littering My Home"}]}, {"label": "Beats Outlook", "summary": "Commenters coming from Outlook find it faster and more pleasant.", "quotes": [{"id": 777424401, "item_id": 48589025, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48589025", "by": "cik", "date": "2026-06-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Now, the Thunderbird experience is shockingly pleasurable, compared.", "excerpt": "This year, for the first time since 2006 I've have Outlook and friends in my life. I run Linux, so naturally I turned to firefox.. Not a win. Fair, I use Chrome only for these products. Dear Lord, how has the software gotten this much worse in 19 years? I thought that Thunderbird was bloated and awful... until I tried Outlook, in a browser, on Linux. Now, the Thunderbird experience is shockingly pleasurable, compared", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft new Outlook takes 10 seconds to do what Outlook Classic does instantly"}, {"id": 785894817, "item_id": 49118426, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49118426", "by": "annzabelle", "date": "2026-07-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "neither of which is as quick to load as Thunderbird was 20 years ago", "excerpt": "I thought Google was a mess until I started working at a Microsoft shop for the first time. Boy it's astonishing. I've got two versions of Outlook on my computer, neither of which is as quick to load as Thunderbird was 20 years ago. My team uses Azure DevOps for our git forge, which is somehow a completely different product than GitHub. There are multiple versions of Planner in Teams, where the free version's feature", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Gemini Robotics 2 brings whole body intelligence to robots"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Declining quality", "summary": "Some long-time users say changes over the years have made it worse.", "quotes": [{"id": 763239120, "item_id": 47702445, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47702445", "by": "antisol", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Literally every change that's been made to thunderbird in the last 10+ years has made it worse.", "excerpt": "DO NOT donate to Thunderbird. Let it \"die\". As with all of Mozilla's software, that would be the best outcome - if it does, someone who isn't totally incompetent might fork it and actually improve it. Literally every change that's been made to thunderbird in the last 10+ years has made it worse. Mozilla are doggedly using the same philosophy as they are with firefox: \"in what new and exciting ways can we make it more", "context": "20-year user", "use_case": "email and calendar", "switched_from": "", "story": "Help Keep Thunderbird Alive"}, {"id": 801184720, "item_id": 50074045, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50074045", "by": "pizza234", "date": "2026-10-13", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it's a turd of a program", "excerpt": "I use it as well, and it's a turd of a program. However, the flipside is that nowadays, with AI, one can build addons very easily, to fill missing functionality.", "context": "", "use_case": "email client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird for iOS"}, {"id": 763223409, "item_id": 47701463, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47701463", "by": "Loic", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used Thunderbird for years, it was really the best client for some times on Linux.", "excerpt": "Interestingly, I used Thunderbird for years, it was really the best client for some times on Linux. But as the development stalled, I moved to Gnome Evolution, the nice integration with the general Gnome desktop made the switch less painful (at the start, it was hard, Evolution was not that good). But Evolution improved nicely, less bugs, faster, still well integrated into the desktop and I see no reasons to switch b", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Help Keep Thunderbird Alive"}]}, {"label": "UI and editor", "summary": "The UI feels off to some even after the redesign, and one commenter called the editor garbage.", "quotes": [{"id": 799892464, "item_id": 49993279, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49993279", "by": "cosmic_cheese", "date": "2026-10-07", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Thunderbird on the other hand feels wrong somehow, and the recent UI \u201cmodernization\u201d didn\u2019t do much to change that.", "excerpt": "It\u2019s a gut feel sort of thing that\u2019s usually grounded in some set of UI design principles that haven\u2019t been adhered to. Defining it just pins down what the issues are rather than making the feeling go away. Glancing at screenshots of TheBat! and Pegasus Mail, i don\u2019t find them objectionable in the way I do Thunderbird. They\u2019re just old school desktop clients like I used in the late 90s/early 2000s, which I generally ", "context": "", "use_case": "email client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Penguin Mail \u2013 open-source Rust email client for Linux with AI"}, {"id": 739505539, "item_id": 46219096, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46219096", "by": "tmtvl", "date": "2025-12-10", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I previously used Thunderbird but its editor was garbage", "excerpt": "I use isync (mbsync), mu, and Emacs for my e-mail needs and it work fine. Both isync and mu4e needed a bit of configuration (and Emacs itself needed one change to stop automatically breaking lines), but it's been working well for years now. I previously used Thunderbird but its editor was garbage, so then I tried a few things (neomutt and I believe something called alpine or something like that) before settling on Em", "context": "", "use_case": "email client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Putting email in its place with Emacs and Mu4e"}]}, {"label": "Search", "summary": "Its built-in search does not work well for some users.", "quotes": [{"id": 801198864, "item_id": 50074929, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50074929", "by": "janci", "date": "2026-10-13", "stance": "warn", "quote": "the search in Thunderbird never worked for me, so I use the quick filter", "excerpt": "Yeah, the search in Thunderbird never worked for me, so I use the quick filter. Apparently it does not use the index (and is slower), but it works.", "context": "", "use_case": "email search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird for iOS"}, {"id": 763229728, "item_id": 47701858, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47701858", "by": "nisegami", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Thunderbird on both Linux/Android as my sole client for personal email. I'm mostly pretty happy with it", "excerpt": "I use Thunderbird on both Linux/Android as my sole client for personal email. I'm mostly pretty happy with it, aside from search. My use case is mostly receiving email rather than sending email however. I would be much more amenable to donating if I knew that my donation would be going to support Thunderbird specifically and not rolled up into the parent MZLA Technologies Corporation, but I understand that's usually ", "context": "", "use_case": "personal email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Help Keep Thunderbird Alive"}]}, {"label": "Resource usage", "summary": "It is described as heavy, and one Mac user says it makes the machine too warm.", "quotes": [{"id": 801250241, "item_id": 50078140, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50078140", "by": "drnick1", "date": "2026-10-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "On Linux desktop, Thunderbird is still the best all around email/CardDAV/CalDAV client it seems", "excerpt": "I have been using K9 for a long time on Android. No complaints. I guess most Apple users will simply use the default email client, which works well and is probably better integrated and has a better UI than Thunderbird. On Linux desktop, Thunderbird is still the best all around email/CardDAV/CalDAV client it seems, despite being unreasonably heavy.", "context": "Linux desktop user", "use_case": "Linux desktop email/calendar/contacts", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird for iOS"}, {"id": 802201650, "item_id": 50137603, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50137603", "by": "soulofmischief", "date": "2026-10-18", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Thunderbird alone makes the computer too warm to comfortably use.", "excerpt": "We will see, Ternus was previously senior VP of hardware engineering so my money has been on it getting worse. I'm excited for Gravity Linux though. I appreciate your suggestion. I'm curious if the machines you repaired then had aluminum unibodies? My understanding is that if my chassis heats up quickly, then the thermal coupling is good, since the unibodies act as a heat sink. Certainly, blasting the fans at 100% ty", "context": "M2 and M5 Mac owner with thermal issues on macOS 26", "use_case": "email client under Rosetta", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple ML Research: Muse Spark Open with MLX on Mac Studio"}]}, {"label": "SMTP setup", "summary": "Outgoing SMTP servers are configured separately from accounts rather than per account.", "quotes": [{"id": 789112192, "item_id": 49319512, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49319512", "by": "justsomehnguy", "date": "2026-08-16", "stance": "warn", "quote": "ThunderBird still insists what a single SMTP outbound server for all your accounts is totes fine.", "excerpt": "> They aren't dogfooding this The year is 2026 and ThunderBird still insists what a single SMTP outbound server for all your accounts is totes fine. Sure, if you insist it would configure a separate one, but all SMTP configuration is under a separate \"Ougoing Server (SMTP)\" option and not under the account. > They need to seek out the power users They are in a fine and cozy place \"giving value\" and \"providing the alt", "context": "", "use_case": "email client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird's Desktop Calendar Visual Redesign"}]}], "who": [{"by": "drnick1", "context": "Linux desktop user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50078140", "date": "2026-10-13"}, {"by": "jillesvangurp", "context": "runs a small company", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49941162", "date": "2026-10-03"}, {"by": "jhallenworld", "context": "worked at a startup acquired by IBM in 2005", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49626763", "date": "2026-09-09"}, {"by": "flaburgan", "context": "Linux user, tech go-to person for family", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49563930", "date": "2026-09-04"}, {"by": "PurpleRamen", "context": "works in a business where people send whole history in each mail", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48905212", "date": "2026-07-14"}, {"by": "TalkingCodeMonk", "context": "FLOSS donor", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48515282", "date": "2026-06-13"}, {"by": "DoingIsLearning", "context": "former yearly donor", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47712246", "date": "2026-04-09"}, {"by": "rambambram", "context": "Linux user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47701866", "date": "2026-04-09"}, {"by": "ece", "context": "donates yearly to projects used", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47372594", "date": "2026-03-13"}, {"by": "Aldipower", "context": "software author", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47369904", "date": "2026-03-13"}, {"by": "Grisu_FTP", "context": "self-hosts mail, Linux user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46541370", "date": "2026-01-08"}], "tags": ["for Linux users", "for multiple accounts", "for email backups", "for RSS feeds", "for Matrix and IRC"], "use_cases": ["email client", "email", "rss feed reader", "email client under rosetta", "linux desktop email/calendar/contacts", "multiple email accounts"], "compared": [{"slug": "mu4e", "name": "mu4e", "co": 3, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "evolution", "name": "Evolution", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 2}, {"slug": "firefox", "name": "Firefox", "co": 6, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "gmail", "name": "Gmail", "co": 3, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "microsoft-outlook", "name": "Microsoft Outlook", "co": 5, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "lotus-notes", "name": "Lotus Notes", "co": 1, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "betterbird", "name": "Betterbird", "co": 1, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}], "makers": [{"id": 798824177, "item_id": 49926511, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49926511", "by": "rothific", "date": "2026-10-01", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "the open-source email client used by 20M+ people", "excerpt": "Mozilla / Thunderbird / Thunderbolt | Staff Product Engineer, Enterprise AI | REMOTE (US or Canada) | Full-Time | $185K\u2013$220K USD / $155K\u2013$185K CAD | https://grnh.se/viz7vum71us We're building Thunderbolt (https://github.com/thunderbird/thunderbolt). We're an 8-person and growing team within the ~60-person company behind Thunderbird, the open-source email client used by 20M+ people. Thunderbolt is an open-source, cro", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Who is hiring? (October 2026)"}, {"id": 763750016, "item_id": 47734376, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47734376", "by": "ryanleesipes", "date": "2026-04-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Total mail UI/UX overhaul, total backend overhaul allowing implementation of new protocols", "excerpt": "Total mail UI/UX overhaul, total backend overhaul allowing implementation of new protocols (first new protocol was Exchange), an Android app and monthly release cadence vs yearly. And that's just to name the ones that immediately come to mind. Have plenty of users yelling at us for changing too much. Take a look at https://blog.thunderbird.net for a play-by-play. But we're doing a helluva lot.", "context": "works on Thunderbird", "use_case": "email client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Help Keep Thunderbird Alive"}], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47700388", "title": "Help Keep Thunderbird Alive", "mentions": 7}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50072913", "title": "Thunderbird for iOS", "mentions": 5}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48896818", "title": "Thunderbird Desktop settings research: what we learned from your feedback", "mentions": 4}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49489306", "title": "Ask HN: Best way to archive 25 years of emails", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47320158", "title": "Using Thunderbird for RSS", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49984716", "title": "Penguin Mail \u2013 open-source Rust email client for Linux with AI", "mentions": 2}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"recommend": 3}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 1, "warn": 1, "neutral": 2}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 3}, "2026-02": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 1}, "2026-04": {"neutral": 2, "recommend": 4, "warn": 1}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"warn": 1, "recommend": 2, "neutral": 1}, "2026-07": {"neutral": 3, "recommend": 3}, "2026-08": {"warn": 1, "recommend": 2, "neutral": 2}, "2026-09": {"neutral": 2, "recommend": 4}, "2026-10": {"neutral": 2, "warn": 6, "recommend": 2}}, "quotes": [{"id": 802201650, "item_id": 50137603, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50137603", "by": "soulofmischief", "date": "2026-10-18", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Thunderbird alone makes the computer too warm to comfortably use.", "excerpt": "We will see, Ternus was previously senior VP of hardware engineering so my money has been on it getting worse. I'm excited for Gravity Linux though. I appreciate your suggestion. I'm curious if the machines you repaired then had aluminum unibodies? My understanding is that if my chassis heats up quickly, then the thermal coupling is good, since the unibodies act as a heat sink. Certainly, blasting the fans at 100% ty", "context": "M2 and M5 Mac owner with thermal issues on macOS 26", "use_case": "email client under Rosetta", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple ML Research: Muse Spark Open with MLX on Mac Studio"}, {"id": 801250241, "item_id": 50078140, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50078140", "by": "drnick1", "date": "2026-10-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "On Linux desktop, Thunderbird is still the best all around email/CardDAV/CalDAV client it seems", "excerpt": "I have been using K9 for a long time on Android. No complaints. I guess most Apple users will simply use the default email client, which works well and is probably better integrated and has a better UI than Thunderbird. On Linux desktop, Thunderbird is still the best all around email/CardDAV/CalDAV client it seems, despite being unreasonably heavy.", "context": "Linux desktop user", "use_case": "Linux desktop email/calendar/contacts", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird for iOS"}, {"id": 801225232, "item_id": 50076577, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50076577", "by": "ptnpzwqd", "date": "2026-10-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Juggling multiple e-mail accounts in a single client, and I haven't found anything better", "excerpt": "Juggling multiple e-mail accounts in a single client, and I haven't found anything better - also haven't really had any major complaints, the desktoo app works perfectly for what I use it for. What alternative do you suggest?", "context": "", "use_case": "multiple email accounts", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird for iOS"}, {"id": 801198864, "item_id": 50074929, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50074929", "by": "janci", "date": "2026-10-13", "stance": "warn", "quote": "the search in Thunderbird never worked for me, so I use the quick filter", "excerpt": "Yeah, the search in Thunderbird never worked for me, so I use the quick filter. Apparently it does not use the index (and is slower), but it works.", "context": "", "use_case": "email search", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird for iOS"}, {"id": 801193986, "item_id": 50074624, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50074624", "by": "pmkary", "date": "2026-10-13", "stance": "warn", "quote": "this not-even-released mail app looks like old Bootstrap web apps", "excerpt": "I don't get why Mozilla's designs are so ugly. It's 2026, everyone has beautiful designs and some browsers (Arc, Dia) are so gorgeous you don't want to work with anything else. And then this not-even-released mail app looks like old Bootstrap web apps. I used to love Mozilla for having some of the most beautiful designs. The era of Forefox OS and Firefox 4 with their beautiful beautiful designs and then they said no;", "context": "", "use_case": "iOS email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird for iOS"}, {"id": 801184720, "item_id": 50074045, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50074045", "by": "pizza234", "date": "2026-10-13", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it's a turd of a program", "excerpt": "I use it as well, and it's a turd of a program. However, the flipside is that nowadays, with AI, one can build addons very easily, to fill missing functionality.", "context": "", "use_case": "email client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird for iOS"}, {"id": 799892464, "item_id": 49993279, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49993279", "by": "cosmic_cheese", "date": "2026-10-07", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Thunderbird on the other hand feels wrong somehow, and the recent UI \u201cmodernization\u201d didn\u2019t do much to change that.", "excerpt": "It\u2019s a gut feel sort of thing that\u2019s usually grounded in some set of UI design principles that haven\u2019t been adhered to. Defining it just pins down what the issues are rather than making the feeling go away. Glancing at screenshots of TheBat! and Pegasus Mail, i don\u2019t find them objectionable in the way I do Thunderbird. They\u2019re just old school desktop clients like I used in the late 90s/early 2000s, which I generally ", "context": "", "use_case": "email client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Penguin Mail \u2013 open-source Rust email client for Linux with AI"}, {"id": 799773265, "item_id": 49985829, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49985829", "by": "tlhunter", "date": "2026-10-06", "stance": "warn", "quote": "It's really not hard to beat thunderbird.", "excerpt": "Does anyone remember Sparrow? I like the idea of a native Linux email client. The UI looks pretty good too. It's really not hard to beat thunderbird. Calling it version 1.0 is bullshit though. It's only about a month old: https://github.com/c9dev/penguin-mail/graphs/contributors?all=1 A project with the complexity of an email client cannot be considered stable in a month. There are bugs that will only show up after a", "context": "", "use_case": "email client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Penguin Mail \u2013 open-source Rust email client for Linux with AI"}, {"id": 799338804, "item_id": 49958675, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49958675", "by": "jibalt", "date": "2026-10-04", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "use Thunderbird as the mail agent for the latter", "excerpt": "I just dealt with this due to the impending termination of .name email. I use a combination of gmail as my mail agent, CloudFlare for the domain, and SMTP2Go for low volume outbound with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. I don't have any Apple usage or requirements. Oh, I just remembered that I send mail received by my CloudFlare domain to both gmail and zohomail, and use Thunderbird as the mail agent for the latter.", "context": "", "use_case": "mail client", "switched_from": "", "story": "All I wanted was a custom domain email"}, {"id": 799058592, "item_id": 49941162, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49941162", "by": "jillesvangurp", "date": "2026-10-03", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "what Thunderbird, Outlook, etc. did a quarter century ago", "excerpt": "The big picture here is that LLMs using APIs to get into information stores works but is stupidly slow. Email is a good example. You can hookup gmail or whatever to codex or claude and it's great. But it takes ages for it to dig through your inbox and that involves doing a lot of API calls. Most SAAS tools are about gate keeping data via APIs. You need to break open those silos to get to the data. A CRM is just a con", "context": "runs a small company", "use_case": "local email client with searchable database", "switched_from": "", "story": "Sites in ChatGPT"}, {"id": 795547985, "item_id": 49721749, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49721749", "by": "orionblastar", "date": "2026-09-16", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use PGP to communicate with my business partners using Thunderbird and Evolution.", "excerpt": "https://www.openpgp.org/ I use PGP to communicate with my business partners using Thunderbird and Evolution. What would make it safe to use if it were modified?", "context": "", "use_case": "PGP email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Stop Using Encrypted Email (2020)"}, {"id": 794028209, "item_id": 49626763, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49626763", "by": "jhallenworld", "date": "2026-09-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "finding things in Thunderbird was just so much faster because it had a filter feature", "excerpt": "I had to use Notes after our company was acquired by IBM in 2005. As a startup, we used Thunderbird. What I remember was that finding things in Thunderbird was just so much faster because it had a filter feature (you enter a string, then instantly only the messages with that string would be shown). No such feature in Notes- I remember having a hard time finding messages, and that its search feature would miss things ", "context": "worked at a startup acquired by IBM in 2005", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Lotus Notes and the dangers of starting from scratch"}, {"id": 793598432, "item_id": 49599902, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49599902", "by": "juswilvel", "date": "2026-09-07", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I used Thunderbird local folders for the archive", "excerpt": "I literally just finished doing this with multiple years of Gmail. I used Thunderbird local folders for the archive, then Google Takeout to verify the message set before deleting anything. I also hashed the final MBOX copies before removing the originals. A little tedious, but it worked really well.", "context": "", "use_case": "email archive", "switched_from": "Gmail", "story": "Ask HN: Best way to archive 25 years of emails"}, {"id": 793061713, "item_id": 49566357, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49566357", "by": "goobatrooba", "date": "2026-09-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "put both accounts in thunderbird and then move everything over, thunderbird does the work", "excerpt": "I switched to migadu which was not too painful for a single account (basically the advice was to put both accounts in thunderbird and then move everything over, thunderbird does the work). For email very happy with the provider, notably also as it allows infinite domains. But I miss a proper calendar which migadu is strangely mostly lacking (basic caldav only). Is fastmail better in this respect? And can you do wildc", "context": "", "use_case": "migrating mailboxes", "switched_from": "", "story": "Gmail to end support for \"Send as\" for third-party addresses, such as @yahoo.com"}, {"id": 793022881, "item_id": 49563930, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49563930", "by": "flaburgan", "date": "2026-09-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "put as many free software as I can (Firefox, Thunderbird, LibreOffice, VLC, Gimp...)", "excerpt": "I removed my dual boot in 2009, so the last windows I used on a personal computer was Vista. I switched my close family (parents and even my grand mother) to Linux years ago, nevertheless I still am the tech-savyy go-to person for other people and I am completely disconnected from what's going on the Windows world. Is an antivirus still needed there? Are there some good tools that should always be installed on a comp", "context": "Linux user, tech go-to person for family", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "O&O ShutUp10 \u2013 The antispy tool for Windows 10 and 11"}, {"id": 792740848, "item_id": 49546303, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49546303", "by": "fc417fc802", "date": "2026-09-03", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "if you use thunderbird as a client it has database files that you can copy", "excerpt": "> One of the other materials that I could not figure out how to back up properly is emails. The reason is that there is no clear way to back it up systematically Doesn't that depend entirely on the storage format? For example if you use thunderbird as a client it has database files that you can copy. Since you say that one of your devices is running arch you should check out some of the email options in the repos. Th", "context": "", "use_case": "email client with copyable backups", "switched_from": "", "story": "Creating backup storage sucks"}, {"id": 792012064, "item_id": 49500754, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49500754", "by": "leros", "date": "2026-08-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I've synced 20 years of Gmail to a local Thunderbird via imap.", "excerpt": "I've synced 20 years of Gmail to a local Thunderbird via imap. The initial sync took a few days but it was pretty simple to set up.", "context": "", "use_case": "archiving emails locally", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Best way to archive 25 years of emails"}, {"id": 791841136, "item_id": 49490071, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49490071", "by": "beardyw", "date": "2026-08-29", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use Thunderbird which is at least local.", "excerpt": "Mbox is text, so it is searchable with something which takes a huge file. Not sure you will find client type formatting as standalone option. I use Thunderbird which is at least local.", "context": "", "use_case": "local email client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Best way to archive 25 years of emails"}, {"id": 791679153, "item_id": 49479947, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49479947", "by": "_fat_santa", "date": "2026-08-28", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "for anyone using Thunderbird", "excerpt": "A little off topic but for anyone using Thunderbird, I highly recommend BetterUnsubscribe[1] to help combat spam. Since installing I've basically eliminated marketing emails from my inbox. I've used tools like unroll.me in the past but I found that a one-time review doesn't really help much since every signup and every form entry always risks you getting more marketing emails and having to go to another service all t", "context": "", "use_case": "email client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Advertisers Could Soon Demand 'Verified Clicks'"}, {"id": 790614785, "item_id": 49413424, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49413424", "by": "WalterBright", "date": "2026-08-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I replaced it with Thunderbird Mail.", "excerpt": "I abandoned Microsoft Outlook Express many years ago after discovering that it kept the files in hidden directories, and were in some scrambled, undocumented format. There was no backup mechanism for it. I replaced it with Thunderbird Mail.", "context": "", "use_case": "email client", "switched_from": "Outlook Express", "story": "Over 170k Nonprofits Lost All Their Data. Is Microsoft to Blame?"}, {"id": 789112192, "item_id": 49319512, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49319512", "by": "justsomehnguy", "date": "2026-08-16", "stance": "warn", "quote": "ThunderBird still insists what a single SMTP outbound server for all your accounts is totes fine.", "excerpt": "> They aren't dogfooding this The year is 2026 and ThunderBird still insists what a single SMTP outbound server for all your accounts is totes fine. Sure, if you insist it would configure a separate one, but all SMTP configuration is under a separate \"Ougoing Server (SMTP)\" option and not under the account. > They need to seek out the power users They are in a fine and cozy place \"giving value\" and \"providing the alt", "context": "", "use_case": "email client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird's Desktop Calendar Visual Redesign"}, {"id": 785894817, "item_id": 49118426, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49118426", "by": "annzabelle", "date": "2026-07-30", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "neither of which is as quick to load as Thunderbird was 20 years ago", "excerpt": "I thought Google was a mess until I started working at a Microsoft shop for the first time. Boy it's astonishing. I've got two versions of Outlook on my computer, neither of which is as quick to load as Thunderbird was 20 years ago. My team uses Azure DevOps for our git forge, which is somehow a completely different product than GitHub. There are multiple versions of Planner in Teams, where the free version's feature", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Gemini Robotics 2 brings whole body intelligence to robots"}, {"id": 782483392, "item_id": 48905212, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48905212", "by": "PurpleRamen", "date": "2026-07-14", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "looking at the roadmap of thunderbird, there is some plan about a global database", "excerpt": "I don't use threads, because people in my business are very active in sending the whole history in EACH mail, and others communications have a web-frontend. But if you need threading so much, you could also just move your send mails with the rest of the mails, there is a setting with the server-confg, which defines what is to be done with send mails, which by default saves a copy in the Sent-folder. You could also ch", "context": "works in a business where people send whole history in each mail", "use_case": "email client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird Desktop settings research: what we learned from your feedback"}, {"id": 782397744, "item_id": 48899859, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48899859", "by": "autoexec", "date": "2026-07-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'd hate it if efforts to make Thunderbird shiny enough to attract users sacrificed functionality, ease of use, or customization.", "excerpt": "If I were one of those 10 people I'd have told them that I love \"dated\" UIs. Most modern UIs are trash. I'd hate it if efforts to make Thunderbird shiny enough to attract users sacrificed functionality, ease of use, or customization.", "context": "", "use_case": "email client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird Desktop settings research: what we learned from your feedback"}, {"id": 782378736, "item_id": 48898671, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48898671", "by": "Markoff", "date": "2026-07-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Thunderbird was the tool I used to create backup", "excerpt": "related - recently I learned Microsoft doesn't provide any way to download all your emails from outlook.com in one way to back them up, so Thunderbird was the tool I used to create backup still can't comprehend how is this legal in EU, Google at least provide takeout", "context": "", "use_case": "backing up Outlook emails", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird Desktop settings research: what we learned from your feedback"}, {"id": 782370960, "item_id": 48898185, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48898185", "by": "Jaxan", "date": "2026-07-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use thunderbird on Mac, Windows and Linux (Ubuntu).", "excerpt": "Hmm strange, I have never had a thunderbird folder in my home dir. I use thunderbird on Mac, Windows and Linux (Ubuntu).", "context": "", "use_case": "email client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird Desktop settings research: what we learned from your feedback"}, {"id": 780060466, "item_id": 48753779, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48753779", "by": "godelski", "date": "2026-07-01", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Looked at the same email in Gmail and Thunderbird, it's just a PDF attachment, no message", "excerpt": "This freaked me out the first time I used Mail. It rendered a PDF about buying bitcoin on PayPal (I don't have PayPal). Looked at the same email in Gmail and Thunderbird, it's just a PDF attachment, no message, and the sender was different. No wonder people are falling for those scams, Mail makes it easy for them. Now if only I had a better client on my phone (never buying an iPhone again)", "context": "", "use_case": "email client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple 'Hide My Email' Vulnerability Reveals Peoples' Real Email Addresses"}, {"id": 777424401, "item_id": 48589025, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48589025", "by": "cik", "date": "2026-06-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Now, the Thunderbird experience is shockingly pleasurable, compared.", "excerpt": "This year, for the first time since 2006 I've have Outlook and friends in my life. I run Linux, so naturally I turned to firefox.. Not a win. Fair, I use Chrome only for these products. Dear Lord, how has the software gotten this much worse in 19 years? I thought that Thunderbird was bloated and awful... until I tried Outlook, in a browser, on Linux. Now, the Thunderbird experience is shockingly pleasurable, compared", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft new Outlook takes 10 seconds to do what Outlook Classic does instantly"}, {"id": 776244513, "item_id": 48515282, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48515282", "by": "TalkingCodeMonk", "date": "2026-06-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Firefox and Thunderbird being my daily drivers for many years", "excerpt": "This is why I refuse to donate to Mozilla, despite only paying for open source products, believing that 100% open source should be mandatory in every democractic government, Firefox and Thunderbird being my daily drivers for many years, and donating several hundred dollars every year on FLOSS projects. Many of Mozillas product decisions prove that the Mozilla corporation is not aligned with the interests of FLOSS. I ", "context": "FLOSS donor", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Leaving Mozilla"}, {"id": 775307104, "item_id": 48456694, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48456694", "by": "Walf", "date": "2026-06-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Still my preferred client.", "excerpt": "Ctrl + Shift + O opens a threaded conversation in a new tab. Settings > Composition > Use paragraph format\u2026 set to unchecked Search has always worked pretty well for me, with the exception of not searching message bodies in a folder that's set to only download messages on demand. If the folder is set for offline use, the bodies are there and searchable. I use the Quick Filter bar 99% of the time, anyway, it's great. ", "context": "", "use_case": "email client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird Littering My Home"}, {"id": 775233377, "item_id": 48452086, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48452086", "by": "Grombobulous", "date": "2026-06-08", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I highly recommend moving to something that isn\u2019t Thunderbird.", "excerpt": "If you don\u2019t have any need for Windows/Mac support, I highly recommend moving to something that isn\u2019t Thunderbird. My pick is Evolution but there are many other options.", "context": "", "use_case": "email client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Thunderbird Littering My Home"}, {"id": 763463907, "item_id": 47716494, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47716494", "by": "morog", "date": "2026-04-10", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Thunderbird carries on like nothing has changed.", "excerpt": "I used Linux 10 years ago, but then due to job or corp. and needing Teams and Outlook I was forced to uses Windows. Now with corp job over I was finally able to switch to Linux this week (Fedora + KDE). Loving improvements made in the last 10 years, KDE will always have its quirks, but it is fast and smooth with no crashes yet. I got Claude to make me a migration script which worked brilliantly, haven't needed to boo", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "France Launches Government Linux Desktop Plan as Windows Exit Begins"}, {"id": 763395937, "item_id": 47712246, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47712246", "by": "DoingIsLearning", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love Firefox and Thunderbird, use both everyday", "excerpt": "> Have you considered doing any sort of year end cost reporting That very much exists, and is issued yearly. Consolidated Financial Statements 2024-2023: https://stateof.mozilla.org/pdf/Mozilla%20Fdn%202024%20-%20AuditedFinancials.pdf Expenses in Software Development (2024): > 290,448,000 Total Expenses (2024): > 588,215,000 Ryan Sipes, if you can read this, everybody online remembers the 2020 Servo team lay-offs, an", "context": "former yearly donor", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Help Keep Thunderbird Alive"}, {"id": 763260688, "item_id": 47703793, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47703793", "by": "sherr", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Thunderbird every day and have used it for years now.", "excerpt": "I've just donated. I use Thunderbird every day and have used it for years now. Mozilla, Firefox and Thunderbird are very important to me and my internet usage. For all the complaints (many just unwarranted in my opinion) I'm a happy user.", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Help Keep Thunderbird Alive"}, {"id": 763239120, "item_id": 47702445, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47702445", "by": "antisol", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Literally every change that's been made to thunderbird in the last 10+ years has made it worse.", "excerpt": "DO NOT donate to Thunderbird. Let it \"die\". As with all of Mozilla's software, that would be the best outcome - if it does, someone who isn't totally incompetent might fork it and actually improve it. Literally every change that's been made to thunderbird in the last 10+ years has made it worse. Mozilla are doggedly using the same philosophy as they are with firefox: \"in what new and exciting ways can we make it more", "context": "20-year user", "use_case": "email and calendar", "switched_from": "", "story": "Help Keep Thunderbird Alive"}, {"id": 763229856, "item_id": 47701866, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47701866", "by": "rambambram", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Just donated. Have been using Thunderbird for years.", "excerpt": "Just donated. Have been using Thunderbird for years. I once donated to Wikipedia - and they have billions I heard - so might as well donate to another important piece of software for my digital life. Now that I read the comments I find out Mozilla might have enough money and a CEO taking in millions. Any recommendations for a good email client on Linux? Just as a backup for now...", "context": "Linux user", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Help Keep Thunderbird Alive"}, {"id": 763229728, "item_id": 47701858, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47701858", "by": "nisegami", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Thunderbird on both Linux/Android as my sole client for personal email. I'm mostly pretty happy with it", "excerpt": "I use Thunderbird on both Linux/Android as my sole client for personal email. I'm mostly pretty happy with it, aside from search. My use case is mostly receiving email rather than sending email however. I would be much more amenable to donating if I knew that my donation would be going to support Thunderbird specifically and not rolled up into the parent MZLA Technologies Corporation, but I understand that's usually ", "context": "", "use_case": "personal email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Help Keep Thunderbird Alive"}, {"id": 763223409, "item_id": 47701463, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47701463", "by": "Loic", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used Thunderbird for years, it was really the best client for some times on Linux.", "excerpt": "Interestingly, I used Thunderbird for years, it was really the best client for some times on Linux. But as the development stalled, I moved to Gnome Evolution, the nice integration with the general Gnome desktop made the switch less painful (at the start, it was hard, Evolution was not that good). But Evolution improved nicely, less bugs, faster, still well integrated into the desktop and I see no reasons to switch b", "context": "", "use_case": "email", "switched_from": "", "story": "Help Keep Thunderbird Alive"}, {"id": 759811153, "item_id": 47488197, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47488197", "by": "dinowars", "date": "2026-03-23", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "From Thunderbird mobile on Android I just add a new sender identity.", "excerpt": "> First, I tried mailbox.org, which I can generally recommend without reservation. Unfortunately, you can\u2019t send emails from any address on your own domain without a workaround I use mailbox for a long time, one account for 2.50EUR/month with multiple custom domains and I can send emails from any address. To send from a different address the process didn't really seem different than other providers. From Thunderbird ", "context": "", "use_case": "mobile email client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Migrating to the EU"}, {"id": 757961504, "item_id": 47372594, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47372594", "by": "ece", "date": "2026-03-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The built-in matrix and irc client is pretty great too", "excerpt": "The built-in matrix and irc client is pretty great too, hope they can keep building out these features. I donate every year to projects I use, and TB was among them this year.", "context": "donates yearly to projects used", "use_case": "email, chat", "switched_from": "", "story": "Using Thunderbird for RSS"}, {"id": 757912000, "item_id": 47369500, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47369500", "by": "cristoperb", "date": "2026-03-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Thunderbird only for a small number of feeds I want to read every post from.", "excerpt": "> Thunderbird delivers RSS feed items the same way as email, so you can apply filters to mark them as \"read\" This is a good idea. I use Thunderbird only for a small number of feeds I want to read every post from. I used to also use a separate feed reader for my \"river of news\", but eventually I stopped looking at that and just loadded hackernews or reddit when I wanted a distraction. But I might try Thunderbird for m", "context": "", "use_case": "RSS feed reader", "switched_from": "", "story": "Using Thunderbird for RSS"}, {"id": 747974786, "item_id": 46748424, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46748424", "by": "NoboruWataya", "date": "2026-01-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Thunderbird on desktop and FairEmail on Android", "excerpt": "My tips from moving away from Gmail: - Mailbox.org is what I use and it's pretty good. I often see Fastmail recommended too. - Use a standalone email client that allows you to connect to multiple email servers. This makes it easy to continue to monitor your old email account while you use the new one. I use Thunderbird on desktop and FairEmail on Android (though Thunderbird also has an app for Android). - Transfer al", "context": "", "use_case": "multi-account email client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Bye Bye Gmail"}, {"id": 735825648, "item_id": 45989103, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45989103", "by": "pfych", "date": "2025-11-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use Thunderbird as my main Matrix client since it's already always open on my PC and is Lightweight.", "excerpt": "I use Thunderbird as my main Matrix client since it's already always open on my PC and is Lightweight. Whenever I open Element or any other client (Nheko, etc.) they all complain about each-other being unverified. Clicking verify in any client does nothing. No popups in any other clients - doesn't ever seem to do anything. Sometimes Element will pop up a QR reader but there's no QR presented in the other clients. The", "context": "", "use_case": "Matrix client", "switched_from": "", "story": "Verifying your Matrix devices is becoming mandatory"}]}